


Cat Mode Engaged

by SinningIsWinning



Category: Critical Role (Web Series) RPF
Genre: Comfort, Depression, Fluff, Friendship is Magic, Gen, Mental Health Issues, Team as Family, actual cat Taliesin Jaffe, well no but I mean friendship is definitely therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 15:19:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12773808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SinningIsWinning/pseuds/SinningIsWinning
Summary: Sometimes, Taliesin gets bad brain, and being a person is just a little too much.





	Cat Mode Engaged

**Author's Note:**

> Lots of love and thanks to [XinyiC](https://archiveofourown.org/users/XinyiC) for helping me through this and beta-reading.

It's a beautiful Saturday in Los Angeles.

The sun is shining, but not stiflingly hot. A gentle breeze blows through the windows, bringing the smell of grass and warmth. For once, most of Vox Machina is free at least part of the day, and they filter in and out of Matt and Marisha's house, opening mail and enjoying each other's company.

Taliesin tried. He really did. He got here early, just after Matt and Marisha got back from the gym. He put on a sunny smile for the camera as they Periscoped their mini Critmas. He opened gifts addressed to him, and diligently read through each letter. It's a lot. People always pour their hearts out and it hurts to read and it's wonderful and it makes his heart feel like it's going to burst. Most days, he can get through it without crying in front of thousands of people. Today, all he could do was grit his teeth through it and pretend it didn't make him feel melancholy and too much and like the world is so ugly and beautiful at once that he won't survive it.

He knows it's not his fault, and it was just something that was happening to his head, but he can't help but feel a little guilty about it. He feels like he's stuck in a pit with an unseen sense of dread stalking him, and there's no reason for it. He's here with some of his best friends in the world - his family - with the evidence of all the love Critters have for them and they have for each other, and he hates it. All he wants is to get away, but he doesn't want to leave them either. He wants to cling and demand affection and he wants them all to leave him alone and he doesn't want to go home where it's just him for the weekend and he wants them to all get out and he wants hugs and he wants to hiss at anyone who gets too close and... and... and...

In the end, he politely begs off when Laura and Travis arrive shortly after lunch to tag him out, and goes to the outer area of the living room, grabbing a blanket off a chair on the way. He curls up on the couch facing the television, and completely covers himself in the blanket. The blessed darkness envelopes him, and he closes his eyes, bathing in the sounds of his friends talking and moving about the mountain of boxes in the next room, muffled by the wool blanket.

Eventually, sleepily, he hears Matt walk through, mugs clinking. He almost walks past, but stops. Taliesin hears him put the mugs on the coffee table in front of the couch. A warm hand is laid gently over the amorphous blanket pile, unerringly finding a shoulder.

"Hey, bud." Taliesin hears Matt's voice, gentle, reassuring, like Taliesin's a small skittish animal he doesn't want to startle. "I'm going to get everyone some more coffee. Do you want anything? Tea? Cocoa?" he offers, coaxing.

Taliesin presses into the warmth of Matt's hand, but makes a grumpy, mewling noise, and pulls the blanket tighter around himself. He feels Matt rub over his shoulders a few times before the hand is gone, and hears the clinking of the mugs again.

"Alright," Matt says, kindly, "you let me know if you need anything, yeah?"

Taliesin makes a reluctant, conciliatory noise in response, and Matt walks past.

A bit later, he hears someone else walk through the room. They pass right in front of the couch and, feeling bored, he reaches a hand out of his blanket pile and makes a half-hearted swipe at their leg. He hears a squeak, and then Ashley is lifting the blanket just a little, her round, angelic face peering through at him at couch-level.

"Oh hey kitten, what's up?" She gives him an indulgent smile, eyes sparkling. He mews at her in response, and sighs.

"Are you feeling bored? Tired of all the toys?" She mused, reaching a hand in and giving him a scritch through the soft tuft of hair on the top of his head. "Or are there too many toys?"

He huffs, and she laughs. "A little bit of both, huh?" He agrees by turning his head sideways even more, and looking at her almost upside-down.

"Alright alright, hang on just one second," she says, dropping the blanket.

Less than a minute later, she's back, with a little crocheted Pike about the size of her palm. She pokes his nose with it. He bites it, then reaches up to run his fingers over the little yarn knots that make up the tiny gnome. Ashley smiles, gives him another scritch on the head, waggles her fingers goodbye and leaves him alone again.

Laura and Travis, done with their pile, rumble into the living room. Laura squeezes into the little empty spot by his feet, but Travis is a big guy, and Taliesin's head is taking up most of the best spot on the couch for playing video games. Travis nudges him with a large, gentle hand, trying to get him to move over. Taliesin doesn't feel very cooperative, and makes a growling noise from inside his blanket. The next moment, he is physically lifted a good few inches, and shoved over enough that Travis can sit down, with his head placed back down, resting on the edge of one of Travis' legs. He listens as they bring up Injustice 2 and proceed to beat the crap out of each other, shit-talking and hollering.

After the second game, while they're waiting for the end sequence to finish, Taliesin turns his head and gives Travis' forearm a sharp little nip. He gets an indignant "ow!" and a small thwap on the head for his trouble, and listens as Laura dies of laughter at her husband's plight and feels her briskly run her hand back and forth over his ankle in reward. Travis lifts the blanket and stares at him.

"You're such a jerk, you know that right?" Travis grumbles, but reaches in and gives him some vigorous head scritches while pressing the button on his controller to start the next game. Taliesin rubs his cheek into Travis' arm and purrs, smug and satisfied.

Eventually, Laura and Travis, always the ones wanting to feed everybody, get up to start dinner prep for the group. He listens to them clank around in the kitchen, yelling about the merits of chili vs guacamole for the nachos. (They'll decide on both. They always do.) He's engrossed in their argument and barely notices as someone else sits down where Travis was a few minutes ago.

They don't say anything or try to move him, or engage with him, but he smells the telltale scent of fresh fabric softener with a hint of warm spice, hears the unmistakable sound of someone flipping through a comic book, and knows it's Liam. Liam settles in, and begins to read out the dialogue of what is obviously another Hellboy comic in a low, soothing voice. Taliesin listens, enraptured by Liam's narration, and feels his eyes slowly droop closed, hands clutching the little Pike doll to his cheek.

When he next wakes, it's to giggling. He feels... something... resting on him, on top of the blanket. Several somethings? He shifts, and feels one of the somethings topple off of him and thump onto the floor. More giggling, more like outright laughter now. He pokes his head out from under the blanket, and watches, upside down, Sam and Brian trying their best to stifle their laughter as they're almost doubled over, Brian holding his phone pointed at Taliesin. He blinks sleepily and looks up at Liam, who gives the two clowns an exaggerated eyeroll and reaches over Taliesin. When Liam pulls his arm back, he's holding... a banana? He raises an eyebrow at Taliesin and glances back at the blanket pile.

Taliesin cranes his neck up, and sees several objects stacked on top of him. Someone's phone, a few DVD cases, a box of tissues, a hat, a couple of bobbleheads, some minis, a plushie triceratops, and other things he can't make out. He glares at Sam and Brian and frowns, which only sets them off into a brand new peal of laughter as Brian snaps another photo. Brian manages to regain control of himself, pats Taliesin on the arm, and begins to pick the random crap off of him, shoulders still shaking from laughter. Taliesin looks over at Sam, who's getting the full eyebrow silent treatment from Liam. The fucker nonchalantly plucks the banana out of Liam's hand and starts eating it, and Taliesin can't help but smile and roll his eyes at Sam too.

"You know," Sam says, contemplating his mouthful of banana, "this is some great material for that website where people put shit on their cats."

Brian halts in his effort to re-gift Taliesin with some dignity and collapses onto the floor, dissolving into a fit of giggles. Liam stands up and pulls Brian to his feet, shooing both of them out of the room with some choice name-calling.

After a minute of silence, Taliesin looks back up to see Marisha leaning against the doorway, watching him tangled in his blanket with a little smile. Dagon is perched on her finger, making happy little chirping sounds.

"Hey buddy," she calls over, softly. "How are you doing?"

Taliesin shrugs, feeling a smile tug at his lips, unbidden. He fixes a fond stare on her as she slowly saunters over, gaze never leaving her eyes. She crouches down beside the couch and Dagon hops off her finger onto Taliesin, chattering and pecking as she goes.

"Dinner's ready if you wanna join us? You can stay here if you want, though. I can bring you something over," she tilts her head, red hair pooling on the cushion just by his face as she strokes his hair.

Dagon makes her way to Taliesin's head, and begins to affectionately nip at his ear. Unsatisfied with this, she hops over into Taliesin's hair, chirping imperiously at him and using her beak to groom his hair this way and that. Marisha laughs and scritches the little bird on the back of her neck.

"Although, if you don't get up, I think Dagon's gonna make a nest out of your hair again," she smiles, the corners of her eyes crinkling. She extends a hand to him. "What do you say? Come eat with us?"

Taliesin nods, and takes her hand.


End file.
